I have stopped teaching. I will continue to use this web log to share tools and resources. My former students are still welcome to post to this web log. If any new people want to join the web log and post entries or comments let me know and I will add you to the web log.

Friday, April 25, 2008

The Original Photograph. Should have set my white balance to florescent...

Cleaned and highlighted photo. Used Photoshop CS3.

Image Adjustments: Up brightness by 20Add Levels Adjustment Layer and adjust for best color.Add Brightness/Contrast Adjustment LayerMask off everything but the geode. Using the paint brush.Up the brightness + 50 and the Contrast +10

Did a little modification on the center to make it a little cooler...

Add Hue/Sat Adjustment LayerUse Polygonal Lasso to select the center.Sharpen the selection line a little and soften the edge.Invert the center and mask off the rest so only the center is available.Adjust the Blues so we have +70 Hue and +25 Sat.

Finally I cut the background out of the picture entirely and removed the stand.

Add a regular layer.Mask off everything with the paint tool except for the geode. Use Black.Use Clone Stamp, Brush, Eraser and heal tools to remove the corners of the stand from the bottom.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Cameras these days work to prevent you from making mistakes, the easy modes and program modes are set to work most of the time. In order to learn to control your camera you need to make it so that it does not take pictures correctly. Create photographs that document and show the following common errors.

1. Subject Blur/Partially Blurry PhotographsPhone cord moving.

2. Motion Blur/Totally blurry photographs

Camera moving.

3. Depth of Field/Wrong plane of focus

Notice the plant in the center back left is in focus better the the plant in the center of the picture.

4. Over exposure/Washed out

Overexposure was taken by accidentally moving 2 stops in the wrong direction for shutter speed to adjust for sunny 16 on an f8 stop.

Look up three reviews of your camera and summarize their conclusions.Use http://www.dcviews.com/ to find information on your camera.List the three review sites and also list three strengths and three weaknesses about your camera to the course web log.Camera: Canon A720 IS

Over all the A720 IS is a good small sensor camera for new photographers as well as a second camera for professional photographers. As long as you are aware of the limitations you can do a lot. The complete set of manual functions is comparable to many professional SLR cameras. It is a good starter camera for beginning photographers, especially for the price. It is compact enough to be portable yet it has a good grip on the right side for one handed photography. There are accessory lenses available as well for wider format or telephoto. I like it, its a very good value for the price.

StrengthsThe hand grip is very good for 1 handed shoots.Extensive array of manual controls.The image stabilization system is very effective.Very good color and white balance in most conditions except tungsten.WeaknessesDoes not do RAW28mm lens would be nice to have.Poor color performance under tungsten lighting. Recommended to use tungsten mode in this case.Picks up a lot of noise at high ISO. Recommended to keep ISO low for best quality shots.

Answer the following questions about your camera: Canon PowerShot A720 IS

How do you adjust the ISO?

Auto: Func. Set (first item selected on left side of display) > Use left and right to select Auto or High ISO.Manual: Func. Set (first item selected on left side of display) > Use left and right to select 80 100 200 400 800 or 1600 ISO.

How do you adjust white balance?

Auto: No SettingsManual: Func. Set Use down arrow once to select white balance > Use left and right to select Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, Florescent, Florescent H, Underwater and Evaluate Mode.

How do you set exposure compensation?

Auto: NoneManual: Func. Set Use down arrow 4 times to select Flash Output. Power settings are 1/3, 2/3 and Full.TV and AV Modes: You can set exposure comp. by +2 or - 2 stops in 1/3 stop steps.

How do you set file size and compression?

Auto: Func. Set Use down arrow twice to select the compression level on the menu on the left side of the display. You have three options Superfine, Fine and Normal. Superfine being the best quality least compression. Use Func. Set Use down arrow 3 times to select the file size. Use right and left to select L, M1, M2, M3, S, Postcard and Widescreen. L is 3264 x 2448 pixels and about 8 Meg is size While S is about .3 Meg.Manual: Func. Set Use down arrow 6 times to select the compression level. Other then that is is the same as Auto mode. Use Func. Set Use down arrow 7 times to select the file size. It is the same as Auto mode at this point.

How do you set the exposure meter mode?

Auto & Manual: None

How do you set macro focusing?

Auto & Manual: Use the down arrow repeatedly until you select Macro.

How do you set the flash mode?

Auto: Use the up arrow. The options are Auto and Off.Manual: Use the up arrow. The options are On and Off.

You should use the proper F Stops to calculate the sunny 16 rule for your max apature. In my case f8. And since I am using ISO 400 the sunny 16 rule would set my shutter speed at 1/400. My camera does do 1/400 so now I just have to count up two full stops on my shutter speed list. That would get me to 1/1500. And that should fit the sunny 16 for my camera. If it's not quite right I can fudge a little.

My test picture came out pretty good. It looks good though as you can see. It wasn't bright and sunny all over but I had good sunlight behind me.

Another picture 1/3 of a stop back on shutter speed (1/1250) looks noticeably brighter though.

So as a rule of thumb you can use the following formula for for f8 on a sunny day. Shutter speed = 1/(4 x ISO). It will get you close to what you need if not right on.

The rest of the Sunny 16 rule.If it is slightly overcast, shadows are soft around the edges. Back off 1 f stop. ie. f8 to f5.6if it is really overcast, shadows are barely visible. Back off 2 f stops. ie. f8 to f4If is heavy overcast, no shadows at all. Back off 3 f stops and punt. ie. f8 to f2.8

Couldn't test the other two. Maybe Later. I hope this is useful to someone. I am a rank amateur and this little report is my way of smart making.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

I am trying to capture that moment in time, when I take a picture. I want to share my photos mostly with family and friends, and some on the web. These pictures are more general pictures. I like taking pictures of the moon, sunrises, sunsets, and before and after pictures of projects that I am doing, usually mechanic stuff. Here are some other pics I have on Flickr!

The reason I share photographs because I would like to show everyone what I do and what kind of person I am like. I'd take photos of stuff I like and show them, so everyone knows what my personality is like.

I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to edit this photo. This is the original photograph:

The first interpretation is a black and white photograph. I used the different color channels to adjust which colors appeared more black or more white until it looked just right.

In the second interpretation, I edited the photo so that it looked like a sketch. I did this by changing the photo to black and white, inverting it, changing the layer blend mode to Color Dodge and then using the filter Gaussian Blur with a radius of about 5.

In the third interpretation, I edited the photo so that it looked like an inked comic-book like painting. I used the end result of the second interpretation, the sketch, and deleted all of the white in that image. Then I put this layer of just black sketch over the original photograph. I edited the original photo by using the filter Cut Out. With the black sketch outlines on top of the Cut Out photo, I achieved this result.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Top photo is the original from then they are numberd 1, 2, and 3. I used Picasa2. It was mid afternoon in an overcast Valdez marina.1. I used the Fill Light option. I find it shows the bank behind the boat better and the relection of the hill in the water sharpens. I also darkend the shadows justa smig.2. I used the B&W Filter. Using the color spectrum I chose a rose shade of the spectrum. It gave me sharp lines and the blue tarp didn't get lost in the picture. 3. I am a fan of the soft focus. it gives the picture a "dream" feel to it. i used the Size slider and scaled it up to 60% and with the Amount slider scaled it to 90%.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

The FOCUS GUIDES WERE NOT FOR TAKING! The focus guides are resource for using in class. I have annotated the guides and use them as teaching tools. Please return them. If you come to TVCC put them in my mail box by the reception area or bring them to class next week! I need and use them.ThanksSteve

I tried to straighten the photo. However, I was trying to staighten the the poles which made my horizen seem unstraight.

Here I lighten the picture by changing the highlights. I then changed the color tempature so everything appears blue and not gray.

I changed the picture to black and white and used a blue and green hue. I prefer the black and white picture out of all of them. I feel that it is more refective of what I invisioned when I took the picture.